The Soul that Sees Beauty, May Sometimes Walk Alone
by ChemKid43
Summary: Alessandra Gallo spent her entire life living in a house littered by alcohol bottles, trying to survive without any parental support. She mostly used her time practicing her makeup skills on herself, hoping she would be able to get a job as a makeup artist one day. Then the Professor in New Bark town asked her for a favor.


It was always rather annoying having a bedroom with a window that faced the east. It was impossible to sleep in, especially since the people living in the house were too poor to buy drapes. That led to an extremely unfortunate situation for Alessandra Gallo, a stocky brunette with tanned skin who lived in New Bark town, one of the smallest town in the Johto region. Being the lightest sleeper to ever walk the face of the planet, except for maybe her Unova friend Kayleen, Alessandra was always awake at the crack if dawn. Which could be considered a good thing considering she didn't have an alarm clock and she couldn't depend on her drug addicted mother to wake her up for anything.

So, fifteen minutes after sunrise Alessandra was out of bed, in one of her many grey sweatsuits and her ratty brown running shoes that used to be white, her medium length, wavy hair pulled into a low ponytail that fanned out across her back. Because of her mothers alcoholism the young girl couldn't afford to buy new or decent make up. So, she was stuck with scraping together cheap used tubes of lipstick, nail polish bottles, mascara tubes, and pallets of eye shadow and blush. It wasn't much to work with, but her best friend, almost brother, told her that she always looked stunning whenever he saw what she did with her make up. It was the black haired boy who was encouraging her to become a make up artist like she was always talking about, even getting his partner Marill to encourage her in her own way. She always tried to use the matte purple lipstick color referred to as Heroine by the company that made it when she was working on herself. It was the color Ethan and Marill loved on her the most, so she liked to use it as much as she could. It was easy to work around the vivid purple lip stick, with black mascara and black eye shadow, so the only problem for her was finding the color whenever she ran out of it.

The brunette looked around at the sparsely decorated room she slept in. The only things in the room were her bed, which had ratty, white sheets that barely kept her warm during winter nights, and the dresser that held her sweat suits and make up bag. Not that the room would hold anything else. It could barely hold those two things. It was the smallest room in the house, most likely meant to be used for storage. There was no closet and no attached bathroom, not that any of the bathrooms in the house were clean enough for her to use. Outside of her tiny little room the floors of the house were littered with beer bottles, tequila bottles, and Jack Daniel bottles. Her room was the only room that was ever cleaned. The others were all covered in grime and smelt terribly. Most of the food in the refrigerator was spoiled, but it wasn't like her mother cooked in the kitchen anyway. Most nights her mother ordered take out, only for herself, and left Alessandra to fend for herself.

That is why she spent so much of her time over at Ethan's house. He and his mother had basically taken her into their family. They always tried to make sure she was eating, both of them thinking the girl was far to thin. Which she was. The sixteen year old girl stood at an average five feet and five inches tall, and weighed only one hundred and three pounds. A full ten pounds lighter than the minimum healthy weight for a female her height. Everyone thinks that her unhealthy weight was a combination of a lack of food to eat and her abysmal living conditions. Ethan had been trying to convince her to just move in with him and his mother permanently, but it never went anywhere.

After she finished applying her make up, and stuffing her make up bag into her backpack with some extra clothes and small snacks she had managed to get a hold of, the brunette girl slung the single strap of her ratty, black backpack and made her way over to the door. Opening the door, slowly so it wouldn't bump into any of the bottles on the floor and make a clattering sound, Alessandra peered around the threshold to see if her mother was in the hallway. It was all clear. Rushing through the hall and down the stairs to the living room as quickly as she could without hitting any of the bottles. Alessandra made her way over to the coffee table, the reached a tiny hand under the the wooden surface to find the small wallet she had duck taped to the bottom of the table. She knew that her mother looked through her room for money, so she put any money she managed to take from what little her mother had in a wallet underneath the table. Altogether she had about a thousand dollars.

Stuffing the wallet into one of the small pouches scattered throughout her bag, Alessandra reached up to push back the one clump of hair that always managed to escape her ponytail. It immediately fell back in front of her brown eyes.

Making her way over to the front door, she heard shuffling coming from her mothers room. She was up early, so it wouldn't be wise for her to come home until late at night.

Getting out of the house, Alessandra carefully closed the door to avoid making any noise. "Hey, Sandra." The brown eyed girl jumped a little when the voice rang out of to the side, not expecting to hear anyone that early in the morning. Turning to the left, the direction the voice came from, Alessandra found herself facing her black haired friend wearing his usual yellow baseball hat. His Marill was standing on his right foot, holding onto his basketball shorts, as she looked up at her trainers friend. They were both smiling broadly at the girl, even though they looked extremely tired. Neither one of them were usually up before eight in the morning, and here they were, up and wide awake before six thirty. It was an unusual sight for the early bird girl. "You ready for today?"

"Well, I'm as ready as I'll ever be for something I have no details about."

"I'm sure you'll be happy with whatever he wants you to do." Ethan smiled as he picked up Marill, hugging her to his chest. "My mom said she knows what's going on, and she is convinced that this is something amazing."

"What is it?"

"She wouldn't tell me. Just said that it's something amazing." Ethan turned wrapping an arm around his shorter companions shoulders. "Come on. You still have some time until you need to meet the Professor. Mom is making breakfast for you." The boy angled them so they were walking towards his house, which was situated on the other side of the tiny town and was a two minutes walk from the Pokemon lab. "She is making waffles, eggs, sausage, bacon, and coffee with your favorite caramel creamer."

"You guys are are trying to fatten me up as usual." The brunette smiled at her friend as they walked, reaching over to run a finger over the little water Pokemons ears.

"Of course, you still need to gain weight to be withing the healthy weight range." Marill hoped out of her trainers arm, allowing the boy to reach down and throw his friend over his shoulder. Alessandra squealed out of surprise, wrapping her arms around one of the arms that were holding her up to make sure Ethan wouldn't let her fall. "I mean look at this, Sandra. I'm not that strong and I have no problem lifting you up." The brown eyed boy turned his head so he could smile at her, continuing his trek to his house. "But don't worry. Once you get away from your mom I'm going to make sure you eat enough every day that you are firmly in the middle of the weight range for girls your height."

Marill let out an excited squeal at what his trainer was saying.

That is how the rest of the walk across town went. Alessandra slung over her friends shoulders while the hyperactive little Marill running circles around them. It wasn't uncommon for them to interact like this, the eighteen year old boy treating his younger friend like a younger sister instead. They spent the vast majority of their childhood together, usually seeing each other at least once every day. There were the short periods of time that Ethan would go visit his grandparents near Goldenrod, but other than that they were always together.

In all honesty Alessandra could have moved in with Ethan and his mother years ago. Her mother wouldn't have noticed. She just didn't want to feel like she was a burden to them, and she didn't want them to get in trouble if her mother decided to stir the pot.

They reached the nice, two story house with vibrant red flowers planted in the garden in front of it, and Ethan finally put her down. Brushing herself off, the wavy haired girl waited for her friend to lead the way into the house. The inside of the house reflected the design of her own house. It was the same floor plan, just reflected. The difference: it was far more cleaner than the Gallo house. There were no alcohol bottles scattered around the floor, there weren't any alcohol bottles to be found anywhere in the home, and every room was cleaned every other day. The refrigerator, freezer, and pantry were all filled with fresh food, a cook book filled with family favorite meals, as well as meals to try in the future, sat on the counter, and the room smelt like home cooked food.

It was a welcome change to Alessandra.

The sound of a sizzling frying pan could be heard as the two teenagers entered the building. The sight of Ethan's mother standing at the stove and steam drifting up from whatever part of breakfast she was cooking and the smell of warm food greeted the two as Alessandra set her backpack down next to the door. They both smiled as they moved over to the dinner table. "That smells fantastic mom. You almost ready?"

"Yes, Ethan. Why don't you go get your gift for Sandra while I serve everything up onto plates?"

Ethan smiled and ran for the stairs, Alessandra staring after him and Marill as she followed him. "What gift?"

"For your birthday, Sandra." Ethan's mom, Mrs. Gold, looked up at her sons friend as she continued to make up the plates of food. "You didn't think we would forget that you turn seventeen today, did you?"

In all honesty, Alessandra forgot that it was her birthday.

The sound of pounding feet could be heard through the house as Ethan came rushing back down the stairs, a box about the size of a large shoe box grasped between his hands. It was wrapped in a purple wrapping paper, the same purple as the lipstick she was wearing, with golden speckles scattered around it. He eagerly placed the box in front of his friend, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he stood behind her chair at the table, his shaggy black hair bouncing with him. The boy started playing with his friends light brown hair as she looked down at the box, turning it around to find where the edge of the paper was so she could start tearing it off. "You didn't have to get me anything."

"Bull. You always get me presents for my birthday even though you don't have that much money. I have no reason not to get you anything." Ethan smiled as the sound of ripping paper filled the room, his mother smiling as well as she brought the plates over to the table.

Inside the shoe box that had been wrapped up, Alessandra found several items. Several tubes of various colored bath salts, some bath bombs, a beige scarf with black designs detailing the edges, a necklace, and a box of brand new make up products that could not have been cheap. Including several tubes of lipstick that were labeled 'Heroine Purple.' The necklace, consisted of a silver dog tag. It had a long chain, and the silver tag had an inscription on it. "The soul that is within me no man can degrade."

The amount of effort that had been placed into the gift almost made Alessandra cry.

Almost

Standing up, the tiny girl pressed herself into her friends chest, her head being tucked underneath his chin.

She felt more loved than she ever did in her own house.


End file.
